Does your property need a swimming pool?

[totallyproperty]

Depending upon which area of the world you live in, and indeed which area of your country, the idea of a swimming pool could make perfect sense or seem downright foolish. Is your property large enough to accommodate a swimming pool? Have you considered an indoor swimming pool? Have you considered the full costs of maintaining a swimming pool?

When you sit down and think about the cost of building and maintaining a swimming pool, is it really worthwhile?

 

[Ed_P]

I had heard that the cost of owning and maintaining a swimming pool had come down in recent years thanks to better and more efficient use of technology. If you've got the money to invest upfront in high end kit such as automated pool cleaners and solar powered covers to heat the pool naturally, then does the ongoing maintenance then become less of a concern?

There's a great video of one of these smart robotic pool cleaners in action here:

Automatic Pool Cleaner: Zodiac V3 4WD Robotic Pool Cleaner - XL Pools

But what's the cost of maintaining the maintenance droid?!

 

[Veronica]

Living in Cyprus we have a pool and to be honest in the summer we would not want to be without it. The only thing is you have to maintain it for 12 months of the year for the pleasure of using it for a few months.

The automatic pool cleaners are a pain in the neck. We had one and have got rid of it.
For the few minutes a day it takes to hoover the bottom of your pool the inconvenience of the automatic cleaners is not worth it. Also the parts are expensive and certain parts need replacing quite often.

 

[Nathan Green]

I personally think it's not worth the time and money. But I see no reason not to have one if your budget allows you to. If you want and need a swimming pool then make one.

 

[Barny]

My in-laws and their sister and husband all live in Northern Cyprus and are about 100m apart. One of them have a pool and the others don't so they share the use of it and my in-laws, who don't have the pool, it's my father in law who maintains it, cleans it, puts in the chemicals, etc as his part towards the upkeep of it.

My in-laws do have space for a pool on a plot of land next to where their house is but why they have access to the other pool, the cost of building, etc just isn't justified.

 

[Veronica]

If you know what you're doing it isn't expensive to run a swimming pool.
This is from a member on another forum I use and the information is spot on.
I know because we have tried this method.

Quote
A walk around any pool store will have you believe that PH and Chlorine balance is all you need to do. Unfortunately this isn’t true and what the pool store isn't telling you is to their benefit. Your Cyanuric Acid (CYA) level will rise with regular use of shop bought chlorine tablets and granules because they include CYA. Your Chlorine will get used up (by the sun or by killing algae) but your CYA will not. The problem is that the more CYA you have in the water, the less effective your chlorine is at killing algae so you will have to keep going back to the shop to buy more chlorine tablets/granules (you see how this benefits them?). The excellent TFP Trouble Free Pool forum has all you need to know (and more) but it will take some time to digest but I suggest a quick look at the Chlorine/CYA chart in the Pool School as a good starting point.

A couple of other points just for clarification:

PH+ is for raising your PH and PH- is for lowering it and you can use other chemicals to do this other than the expensive pool store products.

Bleach can be used to chlorinate your pool without raising the CYA. Yes, Bleach! You’d be surprised how alarmed people get when I tell them this until I point them to the labels and they read “Contents: Sodium Hypochlorite” on both (only use normal unscented bleach). If you haven’t got a bottle of liquid chlorine to hand, just take the lid off the bottle of bleach and have a smell, what does it smell like? The local swimming pool!

It’s a good idea to backwash when your starting pressure (where the needle is after backwashing) has gone up roughly 33% (some say 25% but I prefer 33% to save a bit of water). I’ve never been able to get my needle into the red as I think the pump would have conked out long before it got to that stage but to give you an idea. If your starting pressure is 15psi, back wash when it gets to 20 psi.
If you are serious about having the cleanest pool possible, then a professional testing kit is worth its weight in gold. I've used test strips that have told me that my CYA level was fine (between 30-50) but for some reason, I couldn't keep chlorine in the pool no matter how many times I shocked it. With my expensive (just to warn you) LaMotte FAS-DPD 7022-01 kit, it showed my CYA level to be 160! After a 75% drain and refill and SLAM (see TFP site) I now have a sparkling pool that requires very little maintenance and costs me about €1 a day, maybe even less.

 

[nmb]

For those who have not delved into the cost of maintaining a swimming pool the impression that we seem to get is that it is quite expensive. However, your comments are very useful and seem to suggest that a swimming pool is probably within the financial grasp of many people? Now the main question, does a swimming pool add to the value of your property after taking into account building costs?

 

[Veronica]

For those who have not delved into the cost of maintaining a swimming pool the impression that we seem to get is that it is quite expensive. However, your comments are very useful and seem to suggest that a swimming pool is probably within the financial grasp of many people? Now the main question, does a swimming pool add to the value of your property after taking into account building costs?

While it dosn't add much to the value of a property, in countries such as Cyprus it does make a property much more sellable as the majority of buyers want a pool. Builders will tell you that it adds to the value but I don't believe this is true.

 

[nmb]

I suppose if it makes your property stand out, and the cost is at least covered by the increase in value, then perhaps it is a little more useful than many people might assume? A good marketing tool in some areas?

 

[lookinginvest]

Surely it is simply a case of horses for courses? If most properties in your area have a swimming pool then it should be a consideration, but if not, is it an additional expense which you can avoid?

 

[Veronica]

What we find is that two indentical houses side by side, if one has a pool and the other dosn't then the one with a pool tends to sell for about 20k more. As this is the average cost of installing a pool it means that you don't actually gain any money by installing a pool but your property may sell more seasily and of course you have the pleasure of using the pool while you live there..
We have often considered getting rid of our pool as there are only 4 or 5 months in which it I warm enough to use and it needs maintenance 12 months of the year. However the pleasure we get from it during the summer more than makes up for any inconvenience. It is also really nice to look out on in the winter when the lights in the pool are on and it is dark outside.